question about multiple infusions..

Please forgive me if this has been answered somewhere before, but...How long is it acceptable to leave the leaves in your brewing vessel between infusions? I recall reading somewhere that it is "not recommended" to allow the leaves to sit for extended periods of time, but that was referring to oolong teas in a gaiwan, I believe.

So, is it ALSO dependant on vessel type and/or tea type? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm embarrassed to admit that when I brew with my Zarafina, I'll often keep whatever leaves I'm using in there for the better part of a day and keep resteeping them...even when they're clearly gone. The machine is just such a pain to clean compared to sweeping out a gaiwan. But I wouldn't keep any leaves around past a daylight-day (12 hrs), less than that if the leaves are uncovered.

My philosophy is, that as long as the leaves are hot, no bacteria/mold/fungus will get to them. But once the leaves cool off, I don't let them sit for longer than half an hour. If I wait much longer than an hour, I find that the tea takes on a more "dry" taste.

Sencha doesn't seem to keep well like that-- the leaves turn brown relatively quickly. I've been known to leave oolongs out for several hours though, and find that some still have a fair amount of potency.

Hey all, thanks for all the info. So far, in the few months that i have been drinking loose leaf teas daily and trying out different methods and such...the longest I have let the leaves sit in their brewing vessel between infusions is about 2 hours. And I've done that with about all of my teas (whites, oolongs, sencha, etc.). What I've noticed personally is that the tea definitely LOOKS darker in the cup than if it were steeped in an immediate succession of infusions. As far as taste, I'm not qualified to even say..but it seems fine.....maybe the sencha gets a little more bitter but that could be the temperature and duration that I've been steeping at.

my main concern and impetus for asking this question was a health one, i would be worried if i'm cultivating mold in my brewing vessels!

Ian wrote:my main concern and impetus for asking this question was a health one, i would be worried if i'm cultivating mold in my brewing vessels!

Heh, that's my worry as well, and is why I don't steep my leaves after they've been cool for half an hour. But, if you're using boiling water, then that should take care of any life growing on your tea leaves.

The immune system actually needs something to work on to stay in fighting shape, so a few innocent germs or spores from tea leaves shouldn't be any problem.

The current growth in allergies and asthma in kids is to a large part due to the fact that kids today grow up in highly sanitized environments, so that their immune systems simply are not powerful enough/tuned to handle unknown microorganisms or microscopic particles. It's a "use it or lose it" kinda deal